Late in the race, Vergne tried to overtake Grosjean in to Turn 1 and slid in to the side of the Lotus, forcing him off track. Vergne was later give a five-second time penalty for the incident which demoted him to 10th, while Grosjean slipped out of the points altogether. Asked how annoyed he was about the incident on a scale of 1-10, Grosjean replied: "About 842!

"Points have been so very hard won by the team this season so it was really, really frustrating. I think Jean-Eric was trying to launch his car into space using the hill up to turn one as a launch! I didn't have anywhere to go and he had all four wheels locked-up going sideways.

"The contact broke my front wing and also some of the floor at the rear too. This made the car quite a handful to drive for the rest of the race. Part of my front wing broke off and was caught on JEV's car until Toro Rosso returned it afterwards!"

And Grosjean said his aim for the Brazilian Grand Prix would be to make up for the missed opportunity at the last race.

"I'm on the hunt for the points I lost out on in Austin. It's been a really long, hard season and scoring any points is such a great reward for all the hard work that everyone puts in. There have been lots of long hours at Enstone this year, and it's a lot more difficult when there's no reward in terms of points at races.

"I really want to give something good to the team in Interlagos and also in Abu Dhabi so we can end the year with a positive vibe as we look to 2015 which we know will be a far better proposition for us in many ways."